Hackers Jailed for Zotob Worm Attack

Two Moroccan hackers have been jailed for creating and distributing the Zotob worm that squirmed through Windows 2000 networks in August 2005.

According to law enforcement authorities, the online names of both men were found in messages buried in early versions of Zotob and frequently show up in variants of other bot programs, according anti-virus researchers. For example, machines infected by Zotob.A, the original version of the worm, connected to an IRC server called “diabl0.turkcoders.net” and contained the words “Greetz to good friend Coder.”

The Zotob worm exploited a critical flaw in the Windows PnP (Plug and Play) service, a common component that allows the operating system to detect new hardware on a Windows system.

The worm severely affected operations at several high-profile U.S. businesses, including CNN, The New York Times, SBC Communications and DaimlerChrysler. Read more…